It's true! It's true! I've read the 'guide book'. I've followed the 'trail'! It all adds up. It's true, I'm telling you!

Okay, so now I've got your attention, let's think about what this book actually is - a novel. People forget it's a novel, i.e., a creative work of fiction, but it is. It has even spawned guide books and explanations of its 'history' and key characters so it must be true - right? Wrong!....Or maybe it isn't...

It depicts an alluring myth, cleverly presented as fact. Many people want to believe that Jesus fathered a child. It means that the bloodline of Jesus could survive right now in any of us. Add to that that the child was Mary Magdalene's and there's hope for us all yet. We *can* all be saved.

But wait...who said Mary Magdalene was a sinner, a prostitute? You may be surprised to know how that came about and The Da Vinci Code will tell you.

Hang on a minute! Look at the painting - the Last Supper. No *way* is *that* a man! Da Vinci was supposed to be a *good* painter, wasn't he?

Browne's novel weaves together enough grains of truth from enough different sources of information to apparently provide a landscape of 'truth'.

And we all know the Church lies to protect itself...don't we? Who decided that *those* were the definitive gospels? ....Wait..oh what?..You didn't know somebody *chose*?...

How *did* women disappear from centre stage in pre-Christian belief to a couple of token figures in Christianity who wouldn't even have gained *that* place were it not for the help of male protagonists. Mother Earth just got a sex change.

But look closer. The 'facts' are self-checking, the argument circular. I won't spoil the novel by detailing them all, because I still think you should read it. It's a darn good read. Don't just take it at face value and it's a veritable workout for your little grey cells. I loved it - but then I love a conspiracy.

What 'The DaVinci Code' is really about is our inherent pride that Jesus may live on in any one of us, coupled with the great love of a conspiracy theory that so many of us hold dear.

Its legacy lives on because we are unlikely ever to truly *know* whether or not Jesus, himself a figure shrouded in conflicting myth, ever fathered a child. All the best myths are uncheckable and Browne's myth, a seductive page-turner from start to finish - is one of the best.

Learn more about this author, Jane Buckley.
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